“I cannot help wondering how the All Blacks [New Zealand national rugby union team] would feel arriving at the World Cup in UK in 2015 to find that there were last minute proposals to change basic rules of the game in the name of player’s safety but which in effect favoured the slower stop/start style of the Northern Hemisphere teams?”

Last Wednesday was my first day working in San Francisco and we were called to a meeting late in the afternoon by regatta director, Iain Murray, who presented his recommendations from the work of the Review Committee. Present were the key members of the teams, the event authority and Louis Vuitton.

Iain Murray, who distributed the report and then worked through the document explaining all the relevant points, looked tired. It was clear there had been some long hours worked by Review Committee in the previous six days, an amazing job in such a short time.

The teams, especially Artemis, had various questions but there was little time to digest the information as former Oracle Racing COO Stephen Barclay, who now heads the Event Authority (ACEA), revealed the document had already been made public. It was straight back to the base for Grant Dalton to talk to the team about the content and how we would deal with the upcoming work which, inevitably, be required.

It is daunting to arrive at the venue after years of planning to find the “goalposts moving” so late in the campaign, long after design decisions have been made based on the anticipated windy conditions in San Francisco.

Yet another challenge for the team. I cannot help wondering how the All Blacks [New Zealand national rugby union team] would feel arriving at the World Cup in UK in 2015 to find that there were last minute proposals to change basic rules of the game in the name of player’s safety but which in effect favoured the slower stop/start style of the Northern Hemisphere teams?

The recommendations are general, the task now facing the event and the teams is for these general recommendations to be converted in to specific rules of the event, a process which needs to be dealt with quickly so the US Coast Guard can be satisfied on safety and issue its event permit.

Many will require discussion amongst the teams and ACRM, responsible for the race management. Currently there is a high degree of goodwill and co-operation in the interests of ensuring safety but there will inevitably be differences during the process, as the teams all have different competitive strengths which they wish to protect.

The most contentious issues for ETNZ are the reduction in the wind limits and the prospect of flexible starting times.

The recommended reduction of the upper wind limits is more than we would have liked, but we always knew the 33 knot upper limit was not practical. It has been explained to us that the flexible starting time regime, intended for use in the windier conditions in the LVC, would involve the starting time only being brought forward when ACRM was sure that the wind speed would be over the upper limit at the scheduled start time.

This will clearly need the input and cooperation of the teams and we have made a proposal how this could work.

Modifications will be required to the various rule documents which govern the event. Changes to the Protocol and the Racing Rules require agreement from the majority of the teams, changes to the Class Rule requires the unanimous consent of the teams as does a document called the Newport Agreement which stipulates the format, schedule and start times of racing.

Thursday was a day of digestion and analysis ashore while our AC72 went for a sail and the external rule change process started on Friday with a three-hour meeting involving the four team’s rules advisors and ACRM.

Agreement was reached on which rule document would need to be modified to accommodate each recommendation and the next steps required.

Next there will be a series of meetings early in the coming week. I will join Jeremy Lomas and Chris Salthouse at a meeting on crew safety equipment, structural engineer Gio Belgrano at a meeting on structural issues, and Dean Barker at a skippers’ meeting to consider changes to the racing rules in the start area.

There will also be a need to work with technical director Nick Holroyd and his design team on the negotiations on the draft Class Rule changes which we are expecting from the Chief Measurer, Nick Nicholson.

Here’s the notorious video. (Man that planning commish hearing about a certain place in Noe Valley just went on and on, huh? And hey, I wonder who ratted out that long-time Asian American dude* who lost his rental in NV owing to the lack of an Occupancy Permit? Mmmm… Anyway, Mr. Fowler is still reviled in Noe Valley.)

And now there’s this, a new allegation that Stephen Fowler had something to do with these Marin County trees getting hacked (to death?) up in Mill Valley.

Click to expand

As always, We Report, You Decide.

I mean, maybe this tale is completely made up, you know, the way people would make up stories about Mussolini having a devil’s tail, you know, sometimes people decide to not like you and then they’ll just start making stuff up.

Here they are, the allegations:

“Just wanted to pass along another example of Wife-Swapping Stephen Fowler’s example of hypocrisy. He purchased a home this spring in Mill Valley, 317 Hillside for $800,000, tore it down and is now building a 3.5 million $$ spec house to flip. When the bank foreclosed on his neighbor at 300 Hillside across the street this spring, Stephen approached the owner, a general contractor at the time, a few days before the bank took the house away and paid the home owner to have a few of his employees illegally climb 10 Heritage Redwood trees, cut 20-30 feet off the tops of them thus freeing up the view of San Francisco for Stephens new house project. For a self proclaimed tree hugger, he has balls. See the photo’s of just a few of the trees…”

2. Can you stand crowds of overgrown sorority girls and fraternity boys?

3. Can you stand crowded beer gardens filled with the aforementioned?

If you answered yes to the above, proceed to the Union Street Festival. “

Dude, harsh!

But here’s the retort, from a party-lover, here’s the other side of this perfect dramaturgical dyad:

“SORRY FOR:

(1) PARTYING AND HAVING FUN AT A FESTIVAL

(2) NOT BEING A GRANDMA, and

(3) LIVING LIFE A LITTLE.”

So there you go.

The alcohol drinking used to be totally wide open, and then things got toned down a bit, and now I think even the walled-off beer “gardens” are gone. But you can always join one of the annual beer-fueled house parties, why not?

All right, let’s travel back to years past – here are some shots from yesteryear:

“Now here’s what’s funny when the so-called neighbors who own houses near traditional San Francisco street parties, like the Bay to Breakers Fun Run and the Union Street Festival. Inevitably, some of the actual neighbors, the people what live on the street itself, throw open their doors for anything-goes, beer-fueled house parties.

“Yeah because rock and fucking roll brings the “wilder element.” Yeah I bet it must be nuts when your heehaw ass festival gets raided by tall-can wielding dave matthews fans. Ain’t no dancing in this town bitches! We want to sell shitty ass freeway artwork and braclets made out of old rocks and trash to senior citizens and sweater knots. Fucking dumb asses chewing on shitty grilled meat on a stick can’t hang out in beer gardens or do whatever dumb fucking bullshit it is that they do on their lame ass stoops on Union st. Union street can suck my balls, that shit has been herbfest from the gate, amatuer hour trainwreck can stay gone.”

O.K. then.

All right, get your house partay tickets or invites now. (It’ll be a piece of cake if you are popular/cute enough.)

The perils of post-adolescent Union Street Fest shotgunning. The front of this house faces Union:

That entire residence was filled to the brim with partiers in 2008. Ah, memories.

All right, see you there, or not.

Now enjoy a trip down Union Street Festival Memory Lane:

This thing is biiiig – it will take you a long time to wander about Union:

You know who proved popular was Tom Rigney, “electric violinist, Cajun fiddler, composer, graphic artist, and leader of the American roots music band, Tom Rigney and Flambeau.”

Now they’re renting out A2B electric scooters to tourists. Do people really ride these things on the Golden Gate Bridge sidewalks at 20 per back and forth to Sausalito? People do. Anyway, Blazing Saddles bike rentals was offering test drives.

Suds on the Roof, but much less than in years past. I think a man partying outdoors feels more like a man if he can have a red cup of suds.

“Eco-Urban” Union Street featured a hell of a lot of gas powered Honda generators, but this year, not so much. Originally, I thought this distribution amplifier was a box full of car batteries, but now I’m at a loss at figuring out how this band got its power. If they had a generator, they hid it well.

What’s this?

It’s an overhead extention cord leading from a Union Street business to one of the food vendors in the middle of the street. Is that an extension cord being used as internal wiring? Cough electrical code cough.

Oh, there it is! One of at least two Hondas in operation today.

But at least all the amplified music won’t disturb this slumbering. ear-protected pooch.

Click here to get an idea on what to expect on Union Street in the Cow Hollow / Marina this weekend, June 4-5, 2011.

But keep in mind that you will be venturing onto the northern slopes of NIMBY Mountain, the Fortress of Reaction, you’ll be dealing with the Specific Whites of Pacific Heights Adjacent, so forget about walking around with an open container all obvious the way you can at other City-sanctioned bacchanalia.

You gotta be sly fox, like this gal. The SFPD is totally cool with this:

Click to expand

Great. Now you’re all set to party with the attractive denizens of the Marina, where even the fat slobs are appealing in a Jack Black / Judd Apatow kind of way.

Now here’s what’s funny when the so-called neighbors who own houses near traditional San Francisco street parties, like the Bay to Breakers Fun Run and the Union Street Festival, complain about traditional San Francisco street parties like the Bay to Breakers Fun Run and the Union Street Festival. Inevitably, some of the actual neighbors, the people what live on the street itself, throw open their doors for anything-goes, beer-fueled house parties.

“Yeah because rock and fucking roll brings the “wilder element.” Yeah I bet it must be nuts when your heehaw ass festival gets raided by tall can weilding dave matthews fans. Ain’t know dancing in this town bitches! We want to sell shitty ass freeway artwork and braclets made out of old rocks and trash to senior citizens and sweater knots. Fucking dumb asses chewing on shitty grilled meat on a stick can’t hang out in beer gardens or do whatever dumb fucking bullshit it is that they do on their lame ass stoops on Union st. Union street can suck my balls, that shit has been herbfest from the gate, amatuer hour trainwreck can stay gone.”

O.K. then.

All right, get your house partay tickets or invites now. (It’ll be a piece of cake if you are popular/cute enough.)

The perils of post-adolescent Union Street Fest shotgunning. The front of this house faces Union:

That entire residence was filled to the brim with partiers in 2008. Ah, memories.

All right, see you there, or not.

Now enjoy a trip down Union Street Festival Memory Lane:

This thing is biiiig – it will take you a long time to wander about Union:

You know who proved popular was Tom Rigney, “electric violinist, Cajun fiddler, composer, graphic artist, and leader of the American roots music band, Tom Rigney and Flambeau.”

Now they’re renting out A2B electric scooters to tourists. Do people really ride these things on the Golden Gate Bridge sidewalks at 20 per back and forth to Sausalito? People do. Anyway, Blazing Saddles bike rentals was offering test drives.

Suds on the Roof, but much less than in years past. I think a man partying outdoors feels more like a man if he can have a red cup of suds.

“Eco-Urban” Union Street featured a hell of a lot of gas powered Honda generators, but this year, not so much. Originally, I thought this distribution amplifier was a box full of car batteries, but now I’m at a loss at figuring out how this band got its power. If they had a generator, they hid it well.

What’s this?

It’s an overhead extention cord leading from a Union Street business to one of the food vendors in the middle of the street. Is that an extension cord being used as internal wiring? Cough electrical code cough.

Oh, there it is! One of at least two Hondas in operation today.

But at least all the amplified music won’t disturb this slumbering. ear-protected pooch.

Well, ’cause bad reality TV played a role in aging Robert Hanamura losing his upstairs place at 479 Douglass ($850k? Sounds cheap.) in NIMBY Valley.

Let me tell you here, let’s say you’re a landlord in the 415 and you have some Hanamuras living upstairs that you want get rid of. Let’s say they’ve been there for donkey’s years, using an illegally-installed kitchen. Here’s how it go back in the day:

1942:

Landlord: Hello, City? There’s an octogenarian in my place using an illegal kitchen.

City: So what. Get bent.

Landlord: Japanese blood courses through his veins. His name is HA-NA-MU-RA.

City: We’re rolling the trucks right now! He’ll be imprisoned up in the high desert at Manzanar by tomorrow’s sunset.

Compare:

2010:

“Anonymous disinterested party”: Hello, City? There’s an octogenarian living at 479 Douglass – his name is Hanamura. Japanese blood courses through his veins.

City: So what. Get bent. Who are you anyway, the landlord or someone working on his behalf?

ADP: No comment. I’m “anonymous.”

City: So what. Get bent, Anonymous.

ADP: He’s using an illegal kitchen. Or, at least that’s what I’ve been told…

City: We’re rolling the trucks right now! Well, maybe not, there’s some due process thing these days. But hey, why don’t you just throw him a few bucks and get him to leave voluntarily. Tell him that kitchen’s got to come out right now, and him too, sooner rather than later.

“He is clearly an insecure man. Insecure about the very things for which he criticizes the “swap” wife. First, an advanced degree from the London School is hardly impressive in the venture capital world. Most VC’s have received their MBA’s from Harvard or Stanford and if you were able to gain admittance to either of those schools, you would never attend the London School. Second, he claims to have scored a 99.99% on the GRE. (BTW, not the standardized test for an MBA) The GRE only scores in even percentiles. For example, he would have not received a score that said 99.99 percentile (as he states in the video), but rather it would have said 99th percentile. Samll point, but character revealing. He calls himself a venture capitalist, but he is only a “venture partner.” Anyone in the venture world knows there is a big distinction. In San Francisco, he is a small fish who lacks impressive education and business credentials and from a career perspective, he has achieved relatively little. His wife has a bunch of “certificates,” an odd occupation, and is uncouth enough to apply for and agree to a role on a reality TV show. In San Francisco, they were most likely socially inferior even BEFORE their appearance on “Wife Swap.” I’m not a psychologist, but Stephen appears to be taking out his feelings of inadequacy on this woman. Kudos to her for keeping her dignity through it all.

[UPDATE: Whoops, StephenFowlerSucks.com is still an active site, so maybe not everyone has moved on. Oh, wait a second, it’s blog.StephenFowlerSucks.com so maybe it’s a free website and the author actually has moved on. Can’t tell.]

“Forty minutes on television, a lifetime of consequences,” Fowler said.

Uh, you were kind of a tool living in Noe Valley before the show, you were kind of a tool living in Noe Valley during the show, and now you’re kind of a tool living in Noe Valley after the show. So what “consequences” have there been, really? What’s changed?

For a several days after the show, security guards were posted in the neighborhood.

Rich people can afford to do a lot of unnecessary things, of course. Why use the passive voice when it’s sort of obvious that dude hired the guards?

Fowler was fired from his job as chief financial officer when the solar company he worked for was the target of threats.

Uh, maybe the same would have occurred without the threats? So why mention any “threats?” Did the company sign-off on having its CFO appear on the television? Who knows? Has any CFO actually gotten fired over some incoming phone calls or emails? Mmmmm…

“I’m not going to bad mouth the neighbors, although I realize it is better copy if I do,” he said with a smile.

Why on Earth would dude care about what’s good “copy” or not? Why would he antagonize the crowd against him? Would that be rational behavior?

Muzzled for a year under his contract with the show, he’s now ready to answer that question everyone wants to ask – why would an intelligent, pleasant fellow with a refined English accent say such horrible things?

Uh, “muzzled?” He could have said whatever he wanted to whenever he wanted to, obviously. Why did he sign the deal then if he didn’t want to be on the television? And “everyone” wants to ask dude a question. Really? Like IRL? And “intelligent,” “pleasant,” “refined?” What kind of “journalist” would ask a question in such a kiss-ass fashion?

“Clearly it was the most stupid mistake of my life,” he said.

Uh, to the extent that people know about you, it’s the only thing people know about you. How is it then that you can say “clearly” anything?

“I was going to be Simon Cowell on steroids. The producers made it quite clear they needed confrontation.

What kind of gun did they have pointed at your head when they forced you to become (in your dreams, dude) Simon Cowell, dude? Why did you care what they “needed?” Oh, cause you wanted to be on the television? How banal.

But it can’t ruin his life. C’mon people, it is time to move on.

Nobody in town gives a flying foxtrot about this character except for you, Nevius. Everybody else has already moved on.

Recently, Fowler began teaching a class at the University of San Francisco.

Well, lah di dah!

He struggled with the idea of how to introduce himself.

Awwwww. Poor baby.

He knew that at least half the class would know about “Wife Swap,”

Objection, assumes facts not in evidence. What color is the sky in your world, dude? Does the entire universe revolve around you? Do all teenagers watch ABC? Not to my knowledge. How about, “I felt that some students in my crappy class at USF might know about my Wife Swap appearance,” you know, instead?

so he didn’t feel like he could ignore it. Finally, he decided to just come out with it.

Dude, just ignore it. You’re a tool and your toolish NIMBY neighbors [of course, most of you Noe Valley people are great, I’m seriously] can’t mind their own bidness. Sounds like Noe Valley humming along as per usual.

“The whole class just gasped,”

I’m thinking, no, the whole class, every last person being forced, more or less, to listen, didn’t gasp.

“But this one girl just laughed her head off. She thought it was so funny.”

HAHAHAHHAHAHA! I be laughing my noggin off too! Oh wait, I don’t get it.

Say what you will about the Civil Sidewalks people, but, no matter, you can’t say that they are afraid to enter the Fortress of Reaction, the Belly of the Beast. ‘Cause they’re going to Bring It to the Upper Haight this Saturday morning.

You know, everybody will be there, starting with Mayor Gavin Newsom and SFPD Chief George Gascon, starting at 10:00 AM

Join Mayor Gavin Newsom and Chief of Police George Gascon at a Civil Sidewalks campaign kick-off rally on Haight Street this Saturday at 10:00 a.m. The Mayor will be there to meet you and thank you for your support and commitment to restoring civility to our sidewalks. Please join us and be sure to bring your family and friends!

This is a family-friendly event – there will be fun activities planned for all attending children!

This rally will send a strong message that San Franciscans are serious about creating safe, civil sidewalks for residents and businesses across the City.

Please take a moment to watch the video above ( click here to view the video on YouTube if you can’t see it) of community leaders in support of the Yes on Proposition L, for Civil Sidewalks, and No on Proposition M effort.
———————
The time has come to rally around the most important issue facing San Francisco’s neighborhoods and commercial corridors; Yes on Proposition L, for Civil Sidewalks, and No on Proposition M, the “poison pill.” ‘

900 + small businesses
1,000 + SF residents
& over 25 merchant and neighborhood associations
Proposition L will ensure public sidewalks are accessible for everyone, and that all San Franciscans can enjoy the public right-of-way without fear of harassment. This is a commonsense law that is being used with success in 60 other U.S. cities including Berkeley, Santa Cruz, and Seattle.
Proposition M is a political ploy by the Board of Supervisors intended to kill Measure L with a “poison pill.” Prop M neither changes deployment of foot patrols nor resources; this Measure puts politics ahead of your public safety.
If Yes on Prop L/No on Prop M is not successful in November, it is highly unlikely that we will have the opportunity to address this problem for decades. This is why we need YOUR help. Do you have two hours to give between now and Election Day?
PLEASE, take a moment and imagine how tremendously our city would benefit from passage of this law, and if two hours of your time is worth seeing that change through.